19 Star U.S. Northern Abolitionist Exclusionary Flag, 1861.
There never was an official 19-star flag; the 15-star 15-stripe flag served throughout 1795-1818 even though five new states (Tennessee 1796, Ohio 1803, Louisiana 1812, Indiana 1816 and Mississippi 1817) joined the Union during that period. Because this flag is constructed in part by a sewing machine (not invented until the 1840's and not in mass production until the decade 1850-1860) it is estimated to date from the 1860s. Its 14-star pattern encircling a central star, with an added star in each corner of the canton was a popular design for the Stars & Stripes from the Mexican War through the Civil War. It is suspected, therefore, that this is an exclusionary flag, made in the North sometime between January 1861, when Kansas was admitted to the Union as the thirty-fourth state, and February 1861 with the establishment of the Confederate States of America.

The field of this flag is composed of thirteen alternating red and white horizontal wool-bunting stripes, machine sewn, with the top and the bottom stripes both red. Inset into the upper hoist corner is a dark blue wool/bunting union/canton 16.25 inches w. X 14.5 inches bearing 19 white cotton, 5-pointed stars, each 1.75 inches across, sewn by hand on the obverse and reverse sides. Fourteen of the stars form a circle around a c star, and one other star is also sewn in each corner of the canton to total nineteen. The flag is finished with a .75 inch white polished cotton heading bearing three hand-formed button-hole eyelets for ties used to secure the flag to a staff. Framed (outside dimensions 34 x 50).

Exhibition History:

First Presidio Exhibit
(ZFC0126)
19-Star United States Exclusionary Flag.

Second Presidio Exhibit, 2003 Gallery III
(ZFC0126)
19-Star United States Exclusionary Flag.

Publication History:
Madaus, Howard M., Dr, Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict. Santa Cruz: VZ Publications, 2006, p. 63.

Schrambling, Regina, "A Lifelong Pledge." Collection, Published by Robb Report, June 2014, p. 48A.

Provenance:
• Acquired by Mr. Lloyd Kirkley Baltimore, MD., 1970.
• Gifted to the Star Spangled Banner Flag House & Museum, until 1996.
• Acquired by the Zaricor Flag Collection from the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House Collection of Baltimore, MD. in 1996.


ZFC Significant Flag
Item is Framed

Sources:


Madaus, Howard M.- Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict, VZ Publications, Santa Cruz, 2006.

Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange, The Stars and The Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the republic to the Present, Knopf, New York, 1973.

Preble, George Henry, The History of the Flag of the United States of America, Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1894.

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection